Mrs George Achilles Harder (Dorothy Annan) was born in New York City on 4 July 1890.

She was the daughter of Eduard Annan, Jr (1867-1893) and Lizzie Maud Earle (1868-1891), both natives of New York.

Following the death of both her parents at a young age, Dorothy was raised by her paternal aunt Mrs Thomas Richardson (née Charlotte S. Annan, 1852-1923), appearing with her on the 1900 and 1910 censuses living in Manhattan, her address being 186 Fifth Avenue on the latter record.

Dorothy was married in New York to George Achilles Harder (b. 1886), a realtor, on 8 January 1912. Following a three-month-long honeymoon in Europe, the couple boarded the Titanic at Cherbourg as first class passengers. They occupied cabin E-50 (ticket number 11765, which cost £55, 8s, 10d).

On the night of the sinking the couple appear to have been in their cabin at the time of the collision. Noting the thud as nothing that should otherwise perturb them, Mr Harder went to investigate anyway, following which he returned to his cabin to fetch his wife and the both headed topside.

The couple were rescued in lifeboat 5. According to George's grandson, Mr and Mrs Harder saved three things from the Titanic (apparently taken from the cabin and still owned by the family today): Mrs Harder's fur coat, a bottle of brandy, and a button hook for Mrs Harder's shoes.

Following their rescue the couple were the subjects of a well known photo taken on the Carpathia. The photograph shows them in discussion with Sallie Beckwith.

The Harders were frequently asked to lecture about the Titanic disaster but they refused. Like so many other men who escaped, George Harder found the stigma of surviving the Titanic disaster difficult to live down.

Dorothy and her husband made their home in Manhattan and went on two have two daughters: Dorothy V (1913-1973, later Mrs Barclay Kountze Douglas) and Jean (1915-1991, later Mrs Clendenin James Ryan).

In 1916 she and her husband visited Asia, including China and Japan, returning home from Hong Kong aboard the Empress of Asia in December 1916. At that time their address was 43, 5th Avenue, Manhattan and Dorothy's passport, obtained that year, described her as standing at 5' 2", with blue-grey eyes, light-blonde hair, an oval face with a prominent chin and a high forehead.

Dorothy would live at 43, 5th Avenue in Manhattan for the rest of her life. Her last years were plagued with kidney complaints and she died at her New York apartment, 510 Park Avenue, on 1 December 1926 aged 36. She was later interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.